Description

ISRAELI LITERATURE offers visions of human existence from a wide range of cultural perspectives. We will trace early 20th century writing as the Zionist movement grew; continuing with Israeli contemporary novels and concluding with a 2017 American Jewish writer’s novel placing American Jews in Israel. Each story and novel explores self-definition and the question of what it means to be a human being.

Weekly Topics

Introduce the subject of early Hebrew literature reading short stories “The Way Out” by Y.H. Brenner; “Agunot” by S.Y. Agnon; “The Prisoner” by S. Yizhar

Short stories continue with “The Times my Father Died” by Y.H. Brenner; “Before His Time”, Amos Oz; “Facing the Forests”, A.B. Yehoshua

Introduce Amos Oz. Read first half of “My Michael”

Finish “My Michael”

Introduce A.B. Yehoshua. Read the first half of “Mr. Mani”

Finish “Mr. Mani”

Introduce David Grossman. Read first quarter of “To the End of the Land”